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CHARACTER Hi RESULTS OF THE WAR. 

Jaw to jjrjrswirte ami limu to tot it. 



A THRILLING AND ELOQUENf SPEECH 



BY 






MAJOR-GENERAL B. F. BUTLER 




PHILADELPHIA: 
PRINTED FOR GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION. 

1863. 



7 W a 

EXTRACTS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES. 

Washington, Monday, April 13. i 

THE PRESIDENT AND THE CHECK AT CHARLESTON. 

The President regards the situation at Charleston with con- 
fidence. He happily corrected a visitor in the use of the word 
"repulse," in speaking of the attack of the iron-clads. " A 
check, sir — not a repulse." The public feeling here is that 
we actually are contending with Great Britain as well as the* 
rebels ; and that British guns, of the latest improvement and 
greatest power, sent to South Carolina to maintain slavery and 
to break up the Republic, saved Charleston on the 7th from 
her merited destruction. 



THE POLISH REBELLION THE ALABAMA AND BRITISH NEUTRALITY 

IN PARLIAMENT CONFEDERATE LOAN AND STEAMERS MR. 

BRIGHT BRITISH INTEREST IN ENDING THE W r AR THE EMAN- 
CIPATIONISTS AND THE REAL PEELING IN ENGLAND — THE CON- 
FEDERATE FLEET WAR IRELAND FRANCE IN MEXICO. 

London, Saturday, March 28, 1863. 

The apparent break-down of the Polish rebellion has turned 
the public attention once more to the war in America. There 
was an excited debate Inst night in the House of Commons 
about the threats of war, breaches of neutrality, Alabama., 
capture of the Petei'hoff, and several other matters of interest. 
Mr. Foster arraigned the Government for its neglect. Mr. 
Bright charged them with a cold and unfriendly neutrality. 
The Solicitor-General declared that they had done everything 
which the law required, and that, judged by American authori- 
ties and precedents, the Federal Government had no right to 
complain. Then Mr. Laird, the builder of the Alabama, de- 
clared that he had been perfectly open and above-board, and 
had in no respect violated the law, and amid the cheers and 
laughter of the House, declared/ Jhat he had received proposals 
from an agent of the Federal Navy Department to build iron- 
clads and rams, completely armed and equipped, and offered to 
place the correspondence in the hands of Lord Palmerston. 
He asked which was the greatest violation of neutrality, to sell 
ships without guns, or to send to New York cargoes of rifled 
cannon ? He stated that since the commencement of the war 
there had been shipped from Liverpool to the Northern ports 
more than 60,000 muskets, 370,000 rifles, 52,000,000 percus- 
sion caps, and many cargoes of " hardware." These were 
from Custom-house manifests which had passed through the 
hands of the American Consul at Liverpool. 

What more could be said ? Mr. Bright declared that war 
steamers, iron-clads and rams were building now for the Con- 
federate Government. The localities of fourteen of them have 
been given ; but the Government cannot interfere. A whole 
fleet is preparing as rapidly as possible, ostensibly for the Em- 
peror of China. Everybody knows they are intended to open 
the Confederate ports. Everybody knows that the Confeder- 

\Sfc third page of cover. 



ate loan was raised to purchase their outfit. This was the 
reason why eighteen millions — nearly $100,000,000 — was sub- 
scribed, when only $15,000,000 was wanted. This was the 
reason why the stock went up to par and to five per cent, pre- 
mium, though taken at eighty and put on the market at ninety. 

The simple truth of the matter is that with the active sym- 
pathy of the upper classes, and the "neutrality" of the Gov- 
ernment, a strong party of English capitalists, cotton specula- 
tors, ship builders and merchants have taken up the cause of 
the South in earnest, and mean to put it through. They have 
embarked their millions, and do not mean to lose them. The 
Government cannot interfere to prevent it, and has no disposi- 
tion to do so. As Lord Palmerston said last night, if they 
attempted to amend the law, they might make it worse. The 
Government will be neutral. It may even pass over the seizure 
of the Peterhoff by Captain Wilkes. They will let the North 
buy all the "hardware " in Birmingham, but they neither can 
nor will prevent the departure of a single one of the fourteen 
steamers which Mr. Bright says are fitting out for the Con- 
federate Government. England, as a Government, is not at 
war with you, but English capitalists and manufacturers are, 
and I do not see how it is to be helped. 

The interest, you must grant, is a very strong one. Look 
at the millions of capital rusting away in Lancashire ; look at 
the great cotton manufacturing interest, which has encircled 
the world ; at the closed cotton ports, the dragging war which 
shows no sign of a termination, the starving populations already 
beginning to break out into riot and disorder. 

You talk of war. They ask nothing better. The more you 
threaten, the less likely the Government will be to interfere 
with their projects. A war, they think, would soon settle the 
matter. You will take Canada. Well, it was but the other 
day that Mr. Gladstone was forgetting rid of that troublesome 
province, on any terms. You will send out privateers. If you 
do, your ports will be blockaded, and all others closed against 
them, so that privateering will not be profitable. Ships will 
go armed with Armstrong guns, or be guarded by man-of-war 
steamers. That is the way Englishmen feel. They are grow- 
ing so irritated and disgusted with the war that they are ready 
for anything that will put an end to it. The efforts of the 
Emancipationists have not changed the feelings of the upper 
classes at all. If abolition was ever a favorite idea of the aris- 
tocracy, it is so no longer. It is consigned to the oblivion of 
the lower millions. The Times openly defends slavery. The 
other higher-class papers apologize for it. Mr. Bright is still 
the brave and eloquent champion of the North, but he finds 
very little sympathy in or out of Parliament, except among 
the working men, who are in earnest in the cause of free labor 
— all the more earnest because they are oppressed and degra- 
ded as freemen are nowhere else in the world. Mr. Bright 
made a most eloquent speech in favor of the National Govern- 
ment, a few nights ago, to a Trades' Union meeting, at St. 

[See fourth page of cover. 



James' Hall. It was well meant, but very useless. The Times 
is not far from right when it asserts that the whole public of 
England — meaning the voting and income tax-paying public 
■ — all but a few disappointed Republicans, hope for the success 
of the South. 

Lord Hartingdon, in an election speech this week, stated the 
whole case. He had just come from America, where he had 
traveled in both sections, and he was out and out Southern, and 
declared that no union could be restored, nor could the South 
be conquered. This opinion was never so firm as at this mo- 
ment. Is it strange that a strong effort should be made to hasten 
a result in which faith is so general ? 

If the statements publicly made, and apparently based on 
good authority, are to be believed, the Confederates, within a 
month, will have at sea one of the most formidable fleets that 
ever steamed out upon the Atlantic. The steamers now pre- 
paring will be as fleet, as strong and as powerful as British ma- 
chinists can make them. You have not begun to fortify the 
Northern ports a day too soon. I cannot tell when the blow 
will fall. I only know that the Confederates here are in a ra- 
diant jubilation. They care nothing about Vicksburg or 
Charleston. They expect to go home in ; ' ninety days." They 
care nothing for the new Union movement in the North. They 
care not for recognition. The Money market has recognized 
them — that is enough. If cotton is not king, it is at least a 
hard subject, and has given them a loan of $15,000,000 with 
the offer of six times as much. That is glory enough. 

You may hear more of the Peterhoff, but it is impossible to 
say what Earl Russell will do. But British merchants will 
do as they like in spite of him. If you want war, I judge 
that it can be had, and then you can turn the 400,000 rifles 
sent from Liverpool in this direction. War really exists at this 
moment, under the forms of peaceful intercourse. Would it 
be any better or worse if it were avowed and open ? 

The matter of Eederal recruiting in Ireland has come up in 
the House once or twice ; but as there will be no meeting until 
after the Easter holidays, Earl Russell will see to it. Mr. 
Bright told them last night that every Irishman abroad was. 
an enemy to England. He might have put in four out of every 
five at home, and wdiether in England or Ireland. -But, though 
this is perfectly true, the Irish fill up the ranks of the army, 
and fight bravely for whatever flag waves over them. They 
are loyal and disloyal — both after their own fashion. They 
fight for the North and for the South, and w T ould fight for Eng- 
land and against her. Ireland neutralizes herself everywhere, 
and spends her strength for naught. What England has got 
is money, and that will command everything else. 

France hopes to make a triumphal entry into Mexico, April 
1, establish a government, take possession of a dozen silver 
mines to pay expenses, and be ready for further operations. 



SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 



After General Butler's return from New Orleans, a very 
large number of the citizens of New York, most distinguished 
for their patriotism and devotion to the cause of their country, 
invited him to a public dinner, to which the General made the 
following reply : 

REPLY OF GENERAL BTJTLER. 

Lowell, Thursday, March 26, 1863. 

Gentlemen, — The necessities of my position have rendered 
it exceedingly inconvenient for me earlier to reply to your ex- 
quisitely courteous and too kind letter of approval of the ad- 
ministration of my command of the Department of the Gulf, ask- 
ing me to fix a day when I could meet you as therein proposed. 

With every expression of profoundest gratitude for your in- 
vitation to partake of a public dinner with the citizens of New 
York, allow me to suggest that while I am waiting orders to 
join my brave comrades in the field, it would not be consonant 
with my sense of duty to accept your flattering hospitalities. 

To you, gentlemen, at home bearing your share of the bur- 
dens and expenses of this unholy war, forced upon us by trea- 
son, the tendering of such an expression of approbation of the 
conduct of a public officer was fit and proper, as it was natural 
and customary, but rny acceptance of it would trench upon a 
different feeling. I too well know the revulsion of feeling with 
which the soldier in the field, occupying the trenches, pacing 
the sentinel's weary path in the blazing heat, or watching from 
his cold bivouac the stars shut out by the drenching cloud, 
hears of feasting and merry-making at home by those who ought 
to bear his hardships with him, and the bitterness with which he 
speaks of those who, thus engaged, are wearing his uniform. 

Upon the scorching sand, and under the brain-trying sun of 
the Gulf coast, I have too much shared that feeling to add one 
pang, however slight, to the discomfort which my fellow-soldiers 
suffer doing the duties of the camp and field, by my own act, 
while separated momentarily from them by the exigencies of 
the public service. 

You will pardon, I am sure, this apparent rudeness of re- 
fusal of your most generous proposal, but, under such circum- 
stances, I have spoken too bitterly and too often of the parti- 



cipation by absent officers in such occasions to permit myself 
to take part in one, even when offered in the patriotic spirit 
which breathes through your letter, desiring to testify approval 
of my services to the country. 

It would, however, give me much pleasure to testify my 
gratitude fur your kindness by meeting you and your fellow- 
citizens in a less formal manner, " interchanging the patriotic 
sympathies and hopes which belong to this sacred cause." 
Perhaps, by so doing, we may do something in aid of that 
cause. Whatever may strengthen the purpose, deepen the 
resolution, and fix the determination never to yield this con- 
test until this rebellion, in its roots and branches, in its causes, 
in its effects and designs, is overthrown and utterly annihi- 
lated forever, and the power of the National Government — 
with its democratizing influences and traditional theories of 
equality of rights, the equality of laws, and equality of privi- 
leges for all, as received from the fathers of the Republic — is 
actively acknowledged upon every inch of the United States 
territory, is an aid — nay, a necessity — to the cause of the 
country. To prepare the public mind by doubts, or fears, or 
suggestions of compromises, or hopes of peace, to be satisfied 
with any thing less than these demands, is treason to country, 
humanity, and God — more foul, because more cowardly than 
rebellion. 

Let, then, every loyal man join hands with his neighbor, 
sinking all differences of political opinion, which must be minor 
to this paramount interest, and pledge himself to the fullest 
support of the Government, with men and means to crush out 
this treason, and then, and not till then, am I willing to hear 
anything of political party. 

Again and again returning you my grateful thanks for the 
courtesy done me by your action, allow me to say that I shall 
be in New York during the coming week, and shall be happy 
at any time to meet you, gentlemen, and my fellow-citizens, 
in such manner as they may think fitting. 

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Benjamin F. Butler, 

Major-General U. S. V. 

In compliance with General Butler's preferences, as ex- 
pressed in the above, a public reception was arranged, and 
took place at the Academy of Music, Thursday evening, April 
2d. The welcome then extended to the gallant soldier was, 
in all respects, one of the most enthusiastic and significant 
ever extended to any honored servant of any people. Long 



3 

before the hour of commencement, the house was filled in every 
part, our loyal women alone almost filling the balcony and 
upper circles. Mrs. Butler and Mrs. Banks were present, sit- 
ting in the private boxes, and upon the stage were General 
Wool, General C. M. Clay, and a large number of our well- 
known citizens. 

Previous to the opening of the meeting, Major-General Wool 
and several officers of his staff entered upon the stage. His 
appearance was greeted with tremendous cheers. General 
Wetmoke came forward and said : 

I am happy to see that this immense audience recognizes 
one of our noblest heroes, Major-General Wool. [Cheers.] 

The applause having subsided, General Wool advanced to 
the footlights, and said : 

SPEECH OF GENERAL WOOL. 

I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the honor of this 
recognition. I am not prepared to make a speech on this oc- 
casion. You will have those who can speak to you better than 
I can do. But permit me to say what you already know — I 
am for putting down this rebellion, nolens volens, and will 
never concede to any compromise until that is accomplished. 
[Tremendous cheers.] 

The orchestra having concluded a beautiful introductory 
overture, the Union Glee Club came forward and sang, in an 
excellent manner, " The Sword of Bunker Hill." A loud and 
long encore being given by the audience, the Club sang 

"Columbia we love thee, 
Land of the free." 

The orchestra soon struck up the enlivening strains of "Hail 
to the Chief," which gave sure indication that 

MAJOR GENERAL BUTLER 

was approaching. Soon the General made his appearance, and 
was received with long and loud continued cheers, the ladies 
waving their handkerchiefs, while the men strained their 
throats to give the gallant hero the reception which was so 
justly due him. The coup oVoeil presented on the General's 
appearance was superb. Parquet, dress circle, and galleries 
united in most uproarious cheers, and men seemed almost be- 
side themselves with demonstrative zeal. Handkerchiefs and 
hats were waved, and the uproar continued for several minutes. 
Silence being restored, Senator Morgan introduced Major- 
General Butler to His Honor Mayor Opdyke, as follows: 



4 
SPEECH OP SENATOR MORGAN". 

Mr. Mayor, — It affords me the greatest pleasure to intro- 
duce to jou the most efficient officer in the United States ser- 
Tice, Major- General Benjamin F. Butler. [Loud and con- 
tinued cheers.] 

General Butler advanced towards the Mayor, who cordially 
took his hand, and then addressed him as follows : 

SPEECH OF THE MAYOR. 

• 

General Butler, — The gentlemen upon whose invitation 
you are here, have charged me with the agreeable duty of bid- 
ding you welcome to our city, and expressing to you the warm- 
hearted greeting, not merely of those present, but of every 
loyal heart in this loyal metropolis. Our citizens have long 
desired the privilege of testifying to you personally their great 
respect for your character, and their high appreciation of your 
public services. In their name I thank you for having now 
accorded them this privilege. They have watched your public 
career during the present war with a constantly increasing in- 
terest and admiration. They saw you among the first to 
abandon an honorable and lucrative profession, and voluntarily 
take up arms in defence of a government you loved, although 
it was administered by those whose election you had earnestly 
opposed. They felt that no stronger evidence could be ad- 
duced of an exalted patriotism. 

Your first theatre of military service was in Maryland, a 
State then trembling in the balance between loyalty and trea- 
son, and in whose metropolis soldiers of the Union had been 
assassinated on their way to the protection of the capital. At 
that critical period you were fortunately placed in command, 
first at Annapolis and afterward at Baltimore ; and it is, per- 
haps, not too much to say that it was owing to your judicious 
management, in which you wisely blended moderation with 
firmness, that Maryland escaped the criminal folly of secession. 
At all events, you promptly subdued the outbreaks of treason 
in that State, and thus rendered it safe for our troops to pass 
through the city of Baltimore without molestation. 

You were next placed in command at Fortress Monroe, 
where you made the sagacious discovery that slaves were con- 
traband of war. In view of the tenderness with which our 
Government and its military commanders had, up to that time, 
treated the institution of slavery, this discovery must be re- 
garded as one of the most valuable of the war, and therefore 
one which entitles you to the public gratitude. It quietly but 



most effectively divested the " divine institution" of all its 
sanctity in the presence of war. 

From Fortress Monroe you were transferred to a wider field 
of usefulness, by being placed in command of the Department 
of the Gulf. Your friends knew that in a position so environed 
with difficulties as this, no ordinary commander could hope to 
acquit himself with credit. You soon found yourself, with a 
handful of men, remote from your base of supplies and from 
succor, in the metropolis of the Confederacy, where the popu- 
lation, with few exceptions, was intensely hostile to the Na- 
tional Government ; and the moment they discovered the 
fidelity and ability with which you upheld the* interests of the 
Government, all their intensity of hatred was transferred to 
you personally. They grossly misrepresented your acts ; they 
wilfully misinterpreted your language ; they heaped on you 
the vilest epithets, and in every conceivable way labored to 
cover your name with infamy. 

The rebel government and the rebel press throughout the 
Confederacy took up the theme and repeated these slanders, 
with every variation that ingenuity could suggest. The rebel 
chief, in his annual message, even went so far as to brand you 
as an outlaw, and to decree your execution in case you should 
fall into the hands of his military forces. They also conferred 
on you, I believe, the exclusive honor of offering a large reward 
for your head. Nor were the malignant slanders I have re- 
ferred to uttered only by the rebels. Their sympathizers at 
the North and throughout Europe joined in the refrain, and 
re-echoed their bitter denunciations. 

Abuse from the bad, like praise from the good, affords pre- 
sumptive evidence of merit. Hence, if our Government or its 
true friends had been ignorant of your policy, they might 
have safely inferred, from this clamor of its bitter enemies, 
that that policy was just and wise. But, sir, the loyal people 
of the North were not ignorant of your acts or your policy. 
They saw that your capacious and fertile mind, your resolute 
will, your dauntless courage, and your earnest patriotism, 
rendered you master of the situation, and fitted you, above all 
other men, for the difficult position in which you were placed. 
They saw that you fully comprehended your duty, as a military 
eommander, as a legislator, as a judge, as an executive officer, 
and as a tamer of rebel madmen and mad women — for your 
sphere of duty embraced all these ; and they saw that your 
firm will stood ever ready to execute what your judgment dic- 
tated and your conscience approved. 

In thus acting, you strengthened the cause of your Govern- 



6 

ment, which is the cause of justice and right. But you at the 
same time weakened the cause of its enemies, which is the 
cause of oppression and wrong. For this they hate and re- 
vile you; for that we esteem and praise you. 

But, sir, you shocked the sensibilities of Secessia, and all 
its partisans in the outer world, by that terrible decree called 
Order No. 28. That order, as I understand it, was simply 
intended to extend a salutary police arrangement, which had 
long existed in New Orleans, so as to bring within its juris- 
diction and restraint the improper conduct of those aristocratic 
dames who gloried in heaping insults on the soldiers of the 
Union. It had the desired effect. It improved their manners 
and their modesty; for which, sir, I doubt not, they will in 
due time return you thanks instead of execrations, as now. 
The presence of our wives and daughters here to-night proves 
that the ladies of New York regard that far-famed Order, both 
in its intention and effects, as proper and salutary. 

You gave lessons equally useful to the sterner sex. You 
taught them to respect the authority of the United States, and 
to fear its power. You treated as enemies of your country all 
who avowed themselves as such, and, in strict accordance with 
the usages of war and the laws of the United States, you con- 
fiscated their property and appropriated it to the support of 
their own poor, and in providing for the wants of your army. 

By these and kindred measures you purified the moral, 
social, and political atmosphere of a city, in which each had 
been rendered most noxious by the unbridled reign of treason 
and the vices engendered by slavery. By your wise sanitary 
regulations you also kept the material atmosphere pure, and 
thus excluded pestilence. As a former resident of New Or- 
leans, I know that to have accomplished this in a city so un- 
healthy, and where all previous efforts in that direction had 
failed, must be regarded as one of your noblest achievements. 
I have little doubt that among its beneficial results was the 
preservation of the lives of at least one half of your command. 
Your troops were all unacclimated. The yellow fever pre- 
vailed at nearly all the neighboring ports on the Gulf, and in 
the West Indies, and, but for your vigorous quarantine and 
strict sanitary regulations within the city, would have become 
epidemic in New Orleans. In that event, your whole army 
would have been attacked by it — for none of the unacclimated 
escape — and it is known that at least fifty per cent, of the 
cases prove fatal. 

By means like these you husbanded your small command 
and slender means in such a masterly manner that during 



eight months' service you did not call upon the Government for 
a dollar, except for the pay of your soldiers ; and you turned 
over to your successor two thousand more troops than you had 
received from your Government, with military lines embracing 
two-thirds of the population, and nearly that proportion of the 
territory of the State of Louisiana. 

The brief sketch I have thus given of your achievements in 
the Department of the Gulf might be indefinitely extended. 
But I have said enough to show that you have made a record 
of which any commander, however distinguished, might justly 
feel proud, and which the present and future generations will 
not fail to appreciate. 

We, sir, glory in the fact that our country and our institu- 
tions can, in an emergency, produce from private life ready- 
made military commanders, statesmen, and jurists of the highest 
type, and all combined in a single individual. In your late 
command you have been called upon to exercise the functions 
appertaining to each of these, and it must he conceded that 
you acquitted yourself admirably in all. As a commander, 
you did not prosecute war in the spirit of peace, but with the 
iron-handed rigor which its necessities demand, and its usages 
justify, and which is an indispensable element of success. As 
a jurist and lawyer you proved yourself a perfect master of 
every code that could be applied to the novel legal questions 
presented for your decision. In truth, your legal acumen was 
quite an overmatch for that of the leading rebels and their sym- 
pathetic consular allies. But, sir, it is for the statesmanlike 
qualities evinced by you in this contest that your friends are dis- 
posed to award you the highest praise. You seem to them to 
comprehend most perfectly all the principles involved in the 
present contest, as well as the best means of bringing it to a 
successful issue. Your pioneer mind, like Daniel Boone, 
among the border men of the west, seems to keep in advance 
of all others. You are familiar with the causes that produced 
the war; you have shared in its progress, and have had leisure 
since your return from active service to take a dispassionate 
survey of its present status and its probable future. We shall 
feel greatly obliged if you will give us your views on such of 
these topics as may be agreeable to you, feeling well assured 
that whatever you may say will be marked by your accustomed 
originality of thought and breadth of knowledge, and must 
therefore prove both interesting and instructive. 

Without detaining you longer, General, permit me to renew 
my assurance of welcome, and then present you to an assem- 
blage worthy of such a guest. 



8 

The Mayor, at the conclusion of the address, again took the 
General cordially by the hand, and presented him to the 
assembly as one of the best specimens of the volunteer army 
of the United States. [Prolonged cheers.] 

General Butler acknowledged the courteous reception, and 
spoke as follows: 

SPEECH OF GENERAL BUTLER. 

Mr. Mayor, — With the profoundest gratitude for the too 
flattering commendation of my administration of the various 
trusts committed to me by the Government, which, in behalf 
of your associates, you have been pleased to tender, I ask you 
to receive my most heartfelt thanks. To the citizens of New 
York here assembled, graced by the fairest and loveliest, in 
kind appreciation of my services supposed to have been ren- 
dered to the country, I tender the deepest acknowledgments. 
TApplause.] I accept it all, not for myself, but for my brave 
comrades of the Army of the Gulf. [Renewed applause.] I 
receive it as an earnest of your devotion to the country — an 
evidence of your loyalty to the Constitution under which yon 
live, and under which you hope to die. 

In order that the acts of the Army of the Gulf may be 
understood, perhaps it would be well, at a little length, with 
your permission, that some detail should be given of the thesis 
upon which we fulfilled our duties. The first question, then, 
to be ascertained is, What is this contest in which the country 
is engaged? At the risk of being a little tedious ; at the risk 
even of calling your attention to what might seem otherwise 
too elementary, I propose to run down through the history of 
the contest, to see what it is that agitates the whole country at 
this day and this bour. 

HOW THE REBELLION HAS GROWN FROM A RIOT 
TO A REVOLUTION. 

That we are in the midst of civil commotion, all know. But 
what is that commotion ? Is it a riot ? Is it an insurrection ? 
Is it a rebellion ? Or is it a revolution ? And pray, sir, 
although it may seem still more elementary, what is a riot? 
A riot, if I understand it, is simply an outburst of the passions 
of a number of men for the moment, in breach of the law, by 
force of numbers, to be put down and subdued by the civil 
authorities; if it goes further, to be dealt with by the military 
authorities. But you say, sir, " Why treat us to a definition 
of a riot upon this occasion ? Why, of all things, should you 



9 

undertake to instruct a New York audience in what a riot is?" 
[Laughter.] To that I answer, because the Administration of 
Mr. Buchanan dealt with this great change of affairs as if it 
were a riot; because his Government officer gave the opinion 
that in Charleston it was but a riot; and that, as there was no 
civil authority there to call out the military, therefore, Sumter 
must be given over to the rioters; and that was the beginning 
of this struggle. Let us see how it grew up. I deal not now 
in causes, but with effects — facts. 

INSURRECTION. 

Directly after the guns of the rebels had turned upon 
Sumter, the several States of the South, in Convention as- 
sembled, inaugurated a series of movements which took out 
from the Union divers States; and as each was attempted to 
be taken out, the riots, if such existed, were no longer found 
in them, but they became insurrectionary; and the Adminis- 
tration, upon the 15th of April, 1861, dealt with this state of 
affairs as an insurrection, and called out the militia of the 
United States to suppress an insurrection. I was called at 
that time into the service to administer the laws in putting 
down an insurrection. I found a riot at Baltimore. The 
rioters had burned bridges ; but the riot had hardly risen to 
the dignity of an insurrection, because the State had not moved 
as an organized community. A few men were rioting at 
Baltimore; and as I marched into the State at the head of 
United States troops, the question came up, What have I 
before me ? You will remember that I offered then to put 
down all kinds of insurrections so long as the State of Mary- 
land remained loyal to the United States. Transferred from 
thence to a wider sphere at Fortress Monroe, I found that the 
State of Virginia, through its organization, had taken itself 
out of the Union, and was endeavoring to erect for itself an 
independent government; and I dealt with that State as being 
in rebellion, and thought the property of the rebels, of what- 
ever name or nature, should be deemed rebellious property, 
and contraband of war, subject to the laws of war. [Great 
applause.] 

CHARGE OF POLITICAL INCONSISTENCY REFUTED. 

I have been thus careful in stating these various steps, be- 
cause, although through your kindness replying to eulogy, I 
am here answering every charge of inconsistency and wrong of 
intention for my acts done before the country. Wrong in 
judgment I may have been ; but, I insist, wrong in intention 



10 

or inconsistent with my former opinions, never. Upon the 
same theory by which I felt myself bound to put down insur- 
rection in Maryland, while it remained loyal, whether that in- 
surrection was the work of blacks or whites, by the same loyal- 
ty to the Constitution and laws, I felt bound to confiscate 
slave property in the rebellious State of Virginia. [Applause.] 
Pardon me, sir, if right here I say that I am a little sensitive 
upon this topic. I am an old-fashioned Andrew. Jackson 
Democrat of twenty years' standing. [Applause. A voice : 
"The second hero of New Orleans." Renewed applause cul- 
minating in three cheers.] And so far as I know, I have 
never swerved, so help me God, from one of his teachings. 
[Great applause.] Up to the time that disunion took place, I 
went as far as the farthest in sustaining the constitutional 
rights of the States. However bitter or distasteful to me were 
the obligations my fathers had made for me in the compromise 
of the Constitution, it was not for me to pick out the sweet 
from the bitter ; and, fellow-democrats, I took them all [loud 
cheers] because they were constitutional obligations [applause]; 
and sustaining them all, I stood by the South and by Southern 
rights Tinder the Constitution until I advanced and looked into 
the very pit of disunion, into which they plunged, and then, 
not liking the prospect, I quietly withdrew. [Immense ap- 
plause and laughter.] And from that hour we went apart, how 
far apart you can judge when I tell you, that on the 28th 
December. I860, I shook hands on terms of personal friend- 
ship with Jefferson Davis, and on the 28th December, 1862, I 
had the pleasure of reading his proclamation that I was to be 
hanged at sight. [Great applause and laughter.] 

THE SOUTH FORFEITS ITS CONSTITUTIONAL 
RIGHTS BY REBELLION. 

And now, my friends, if you will allow me to pause for a 
moment in this line of thought, as we come up to the point of 
time, when these men laid down their constitutional obligations, 
let me ask, What then were my rights, and what were theirs ? 
At that hour they repudiated the Constitution of the United 
States, by vote in solemn convention ; and not only that, but 
they took arms in their hands, and undertook by force to rend 
from the government what seemed to them the fairest portion 
of the heritage which my fathers had given to you and me as 
a rich legacy for our children. When they did that, they 
abrogated, abnegated, and forfeited every constitutional right, 
and released me from every constitutional obligation, so far as 
they were concerned. [Loud cheers.] 



11 



SLAVERY WAS NO LONGER UNDER THE CON- 
STITUTION. 

Therefore when I was thus called upon to say what should 
be my action thereafter with regard to slavery, I was left to 
the natural instincts of my heart, as prompted by a Christian 
education in New England, and I dealt with it accordingly. 
[Immense applause.] The same sense of duty to my constitu- 
tional obligations, and to the rights of the several States that 
required me, so long as those States remained under the Con- 
stitution, to protect the system of slavery, — that same sense of 
duty after they had gone out from under the Constitution, 
caused me to follow the dictates of my own untrammeled con- 
science. So you see — and I speak now to my old Democratic 
friends — that, however misjudging I may have been, we went 
along together, step by step, up to that point, the point of dis- 
union ; and I claim that we ought still to go in the same man- 
ner. We acknowledged the right of those men to hold slaves, 
because it was guaranteed to them by the compromise of our 
fathers in the Constitution; but if their State rights were to be 
respected, because of our allegiance to the Constitution and our 
respect for State rights, when that sacred obligation was taken 
away by their own traitorous acts, and we, as well as the 
nogroes, were disenthralled, why should not we follow the dic- 
tates of God's law and humanity ? [Tremendous applause, 
and cries of " Bravo, Bravo."] 

LOUISIANA HAD SECEDED AND REVOLUTIONIZED. 

By the exigencies of the public service removed once more 
to another sphere of action, at New Orleans, I found this prob- 
lem coming up in another form, and that led me to examine 
and see how far had progressed this civil commotion, now 
carried on by force of arms, I believe under our complex system 
of States, each having an independent government, with the 
United States covering all; that there can be treason to a State, 
and not to the United States ; revolution in a State, and not as 
regards the United States ; loyalty to a State, and disloyalty 
to the Union ; and loyalty to the Union, and disloyalty to the 
organized government of a State. As an illustration, take 
the troubles which lately arose in the State of Rhode Island, 
where there was an attempt to rebel against the State Govern- 
ment and to change the form of that government, but no re- 
bellion against the United States. All of you are familiar 
with the movements of Mr. Dorr ; in that matter there was no 



12 

intent of disloyalty against the United States, but a great deal 
against the State Government. 

I therefore in Louisiana found a State Government that had 
entirely changed its form, and had revolutionized itself so far 
as it could ; had created courts and imposed taxes, and put in 
motion all kinds of governmental machinery ; so far as her 
State Government was concerned, Louisiana was no longer in 
and of itself one of the United States of America. It had, so 
far as depended on its own action, changed its State Govern- 
ment, and by solemn act forever seceded from the United 
States of America and attempted to join a new National Gov- 
ernment hostile to us, as one of the so-called Confederate 
States. I found, I respectfully submit, a revolutionized State ! 
There had been a revolution, by force ; beyond a riot, which is 
an infraction of the law ; beyond an insurrection, which is an 
abnegation of the law; beyond a rebellion, which is an attempt 
to override the law by force of numbers : a new State Govern- 
ment formed, that was being supported by force of arms. 

THEY ARE ALIEN ENEMIES. 

Now, I asked myself, upon what thesis shall I deal with these 
people? Organized into a community under forms of law, they 
had seized a portion of the territory of the United States, and 
were holding it by force of arms ; and I respectfully submit I 
had to deal with them as alien enemies. [Great applause.] 
They had forever passed the boundary of " wayward sisters," 
or "erring brothers," unless indeed they erred toward us as 
Cain did against his brother Abel. They had passed beyond 
brotherhood, by treason added to murder. Aye, and Louisiana 
had done this in the strongest possible way, for she had seized 
on territory which the Government of the United States had 
bought and paid for, and to which her people could advance no 
shadow of claim, save as citizens of the United States. There- 
fore I dealt with them as alien enemies. [Great applause.] 

THE RIGHTS OF ALIEN ENEMIES CAPTURED IN 

WAR. 

And what rights have alien enemies captured in war ? 
They have the right, so long as they behave themselves and are 
non-combatants, to be free from personal violence ; they have 
no other rights; and therefore, it was my duty to see to it, (and 
I believe the record will show, I did see to it,) [great applause 
and loud cheers,] that order was preserved, and that every man 
who behaved well, and did not aid the Confederate States, 



13 

should not be molested in his person. I held, by the laws of 
war, that everything else they had was at the mercy of the con- 
queror. [Cheers.] 

THEY HAVE CLAIMS TO MERCY AND CLEMENCY, 
BUT NO RIGHTS. 

Permit me to state the method in which their rights were de- 
fined by one gentleman of my staff. He very coolly para- 
phrased the Dred Scott decision, and said they had no 
rights which a negro was bound to respect. [Loud and pro- 
longed laughter and cheers.] But, dealing with them in this 
way, I took care to protect all men in personal safety. 

INDIVIDUALS MUST TAKE THE FATE OF COM- 
MUNITIES. 

Now I hear a friend behind me say : " But how does your 
theory affect loyal men ?" The difficulty in answering that 
proposition, is this : in governmental action the Government, 
in making peace and carrying on war, cannot deal with indi- 
viduals, but with organized communities, whether organized 
wrongly or rightly [cheers]: and all I could do, so far as my 
judgment taught me, for the individual, loyal citizen, was to 
see to it that no exaction should be made of him, and no prop- 
erty taken away from him, that was not absolutely necessary 
for the success of military operations. I know nothing else 
that I could do. I could not alter the carrying on of the war, 
because loyal citizens were, unfortunately, like Dog Tray, 
found in bad company [laughter]; to their persons, and to their 
property, even, all possible protection I caused to be afforded. 
But let me repeat — for it is quite necessary to keep this in 
mind, and I am afraid that for want of so doing, some of my 
old Democratic friends have got lost, in going with one portion 
of the country rather than the other, in their thoughts and feel- 
ings — let me repeat that, in making war or making peace, 
carrying on governmental operations of any sort, governments 
and their representatives, so far as I am instructed, can deal 
only with organized communities, and men must fall or rise 
with the communities in which they are situated. You in New 
York must follow the Government as expressed by the will of 
the majority of your State, until you can revolutionize that 
Government and change it ; and those loyal at the South must, 
until this contest comes into process of settlement, also follow 
the action of the organized majorities in which their lot has 
been cast, and no man, no set of men, can see the possible solu- 



14 

tion of this or any other governmental problem, as affecting 
States, except upon this basis. 

THE CONTEST HAS COME TO BE BETWEEN THE 
UNITED STATES AND HER ENEMIES. 

Now, then, to pass from the particular to the general, to 
leave the detail in Louisiana, of which I have run down the 
account, rather as illustrating my meaning than otherwise, I 
come back to the question : What is now the nature of the 
contest with all the States that are banded together in the so- 
called Confederate States? Into what form has it come? It 
started in insurrection ; it grew up a rebellion ; it has become 
a revolution, and carries with it all the rights and incidents of 
a revolution. 

THE GOVERNMENT HAS SO TREATED IT. 

Our Government has dealt with it upon that ground. When 
the Government blockaded Southern ports, they dealt with it 
as a revolution; when they sent out cartels of exchange of 
prisoners, they dealt with these people no longer as simple in- 
surrectionists and traitors, but as organized revolutionists, who 
had set up a government for themselves upon the territory of 
the United States. 

THE RIGHT OF REVOLUTION NOT ACKNOWL- 
EDGED. 

Sir, let no man say to me, "Why, then you acknowledge the 
revolution in these men!''' I beg your pardon, sir, I only ac- 
knowledge the fact of revolution — that which has actually hap- 
pened. I look these things in the face, and I do not dodge 
them because they are unpleasant ; I find this a revolution, and 
these men are no longer, I repeat, our erring brethren, but 
they are our alien enemies, foreigners [cheers], carrying on 
war against us, attempting to make alliances against us, at- 
tempting surreptitiously to get into the family of nations. I 
agree that it is not a successful revolution, and a revolution 
never to be successful [loud cheers], — pardon me, I was speak- 
ing theoretically, as a matter of law, — never to be successful 
until acknowledged by the parent State. Now, then, I am 
willing to unite with you in your cheers, when you say, a revo- 
lution, the rightfulness or success of which we, the parent 
State, never will acknowledge. [Cheers.] 

THE LOGICAL DEDUCTIONS FROM THIS TRUTH. 

Why, sir, have I been so careful in bringing down with 
great particularity these distinctions ? Because, in my judg- 



15 

ment, there are certain logical consequences following from 
them as necessarily as various corollaries from a problem in 
Euclid. If we are at war, as I think, with a foreign country, 
to all intents and purposes, how can a man here stand up and 
say he is on the side of that foreign country and not be an 
enemy to his country ? [Cheers.] 

A LOYAL MAN MUST BE FOR HIS COUNTRY. 

A man must be either for his country or against his country. 
[Cheers.] He cannot, upon this theory, be throwing impedi- 
ments all the time in the way of the progress of his Govern- 
ment, under pretence that he is helping some other portion of 
his country. If any loyal man thinks that he must do some- 
thing to bring back his erring brethren, if he likes that form 
of phrase, at the South, let him take his musket and go down 
and try it in that way. [Cheers.] If he is still of a different 
opinion, and thinks that is not the best way to bring them 
back, but he can do it by persuasion and talk, let him go down 
with me to Louisiana, and I will set him over to Mississippi, 
and if the rebels do not feel for his heart-strings, but not in 
love, I will, bring him back. [Cheers, loud and prolonged. 
" Send Wood down first!"" Let us say to him: "Choose ye 
this day whom ye will serve. If the Lord thy God be God, 
serve him; if Baal be God, serve ye him." [Cheers.] Bat no 
man can serve two masters, God and Mammon. [" That's 
so."] 

WE ARE NOT BOUND TO THEM BY POLITICAL OR 
PARTY TIES. 

There are logical consequences to flow from the view which 
I have ventured to take of this subject, and one is with regard 
to our relations from past political action. If they are now 
alien enemies, I am bound to them by no ties of party fealty 
or political affinity. They have passed out of that, and I 
think we ought to go back only to examine and see if all ties 
of party allegiance and party fealty as regards them are not 
broken, and satisfy ourselves that it is your duty and mine to 
look simply to our country and to its service, and leave them 
to look to the country they are attempting to erect, and to its 
service; and then let us try the conclusion with them as we 
are doing by arms and the stern arbitrament of war. Mark, 
by this I give up no territory of the United States. Every 
foot that was ever circumscribed on the map by the lines 
around the United States belongs to us. [Applause.] None 



16 

the less because bad men have attempted to organize worse 
government upon various portions of it. It is to be drawn in 
under our laws and our Government as soon as the power of 
the United States can be exerted for that purpose, and, there- 
fore, my friends, you see the next one of the set of logical 
consequences that prove our theory ; that we have no occasion 
to carry on the fight for the Constitution as it is. 

NOBODY OPPOSES THE CONSTITUTION; NO MAN 
NEED FIGHT FOR IT. 

Who is interfering with the Constitution as it is ? Who 
makes any attacks upon the Constitution ? We are fighting 
with those who have gone out and repudiated the Constitution, 
and made another Constitution for themselves. [Cheers.] 
And, now, my friends, I do not know but I shall speak some 
heresy, but as a Democrat, as an Andrew Jackson Democrat, I 
am not for the Union as it was. [Great cheering. " Good !" 
"Good!"" I say, as a Democrat, and an Andrew Jackson 
Democrat, I am not for the Union to be again as it was. Un- 
derstand me ; I was for Union, because I saw, or thought I 
saw, the troubles in the future which have burst upon us ; but 
having undergone those troubles, having spent all this blood 
and this treasure, I do not mean to go back again and be 
cheek by jowl with South Carolina as I was before, if I can 
help it. [Cheers. " You're right."] 

NO PORTION OF THE UNION TO BE GIVEN UP. 

Mark me, now, let no man misunderstand me, and I repeat, 
lest I may be misunderstood — there are none so slow to under- 
stand as those wtio do not want to — mark me, I say I do not 
mean to give up a single inch of the soil of South Carolina. 
If I had been in public life at that time, and had had the 
position, the will, and the ability, I would have dealt with 
South Carolina as Jackson did, and kept her in the Union at 
all hazards ; but now she has gone out, and I will take care 
that when she comes in again, she comes in better behaved 
[cheers], that she shall no longer be the firebrand of the Union 
— aye, and that she shall enjoy what her people never yet 
have enjoyed — the blessings of a Republican form of Govern- 
ment. [Applause.] 

NO RECONSTRUCTION WITH SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Therefore, in that view, I am not for the reconstruction of 
the Union as it was. I have spent treasure and blood enough 
upon it, in conjunction with my fellow-citizens, to make it a 



17 

little better. [Cheers.] I think we can have a better Union 
the next time. It was good enough if it had been left alone. 
The old house was good enough for me, but as they have pulled 
down all the L part, I propose, when we build it up, to build 
it up with all the modern improvements. [Prolonged laughter 
and applause.] 

THE RIGHT TO CONFISCATE PROPERTY OF 
REBELS. 

Another of the logical sequences, it seems to me, that follow 
in inexorable and not-to-be-shunned sequence upon this propo- 
sition, that we are dealing with alien enemies, is with regard 
to our duties as to the confiscation of rebel property, and that 
question would seem to me to be easy of settlement under the 
Constitution, and without any discussion, if my first propo- 
sition is right. Has it not been held from the beginning of 
the world down to this day, from the time the Israelites took 
possession of the land of Canaan, which they got from alien 
enemies — and is it not the well-settled law of war to-day that 
the whole property of alien enemies belonged to the conqueror, 
and that it is at his mercy and his clemency what should be 
done with it ? 

IS REBEL PROPERTY TO BE DIVIDED AMONG 
UNION SOLDIERS? 

For one, I would take it and give the loyal man who was 
loyal in the heart of the South, enough to make him as well as 
he was before, and I would take the balance of it and distri- 
bute it among the volunteer soldiers who have gone — [the re- 
mainder of the sentence was drowned in a tremendous burst of 
applause.] And so far as I know them, if we should settle 
South Carolina with them, in the course of a few years I would 
be quite willing to receive her back into the Union. [Renewed 
applause.] 

FREEDOM OF THE SLAVE CONSTITUTIONAL 
UNDER THE LAWS OF WAR. 

This theory shows how to deal with another proposition : 
What shall be done with the slaves ? Here again the laws of 
war have long settled, with clearness and exactness, that it is 
for the conqueror, for the government which has maintained 
or extended its jurisdiction over the conquered territory, to 
deal with slaves as it pleases, to free them or not as it chooses. 
It is not for the conquered to make terms, or to send their 
2 



18 

friends into the conquering country to make terms for them. 
[Applause.] Another corollary follows from the proposition 
that we are fighting with alien enemies, which relieves us from 
another difficulty which seems to trouble some of my old Demo- 
cratic friends, and that is in relation to the question of arming 
the negro slaves. 

IT 18 CONSTITUTIONAL TO AEM THE NEGROES. 

If the seceded States are alien enemies, is there any ob- 
jection that you know of, and if so, state it, to our arming one 
portion of the foreign country against the other while they are 
fighting us ? [Applause, and cries of " No !" " No !"~ Sup- 
pose that we were at war with England. Who would get up 
here in New York and say that we must not arm the Irish, 
lest they should hurt some of the English ? [Applause.] And 
yet at one time, not very far gone, all those Englishman were 
our grandfathers' brothers. Either they or we erred ; but we 
are now separate nations. There can be no objection, for 
another reason, because there is no law of war or of nations, — 
no rule of governmental action that I know of, — which pre- 
vents a country from arming any portion of its citizens ; and 
if the slaves do not take part in the rebellion, they become 
simply our citizens residing in our territory which is at present 
usurped by our enemies, to be used in its defence as other 
citizens are. [Applause.] At this waning hour, I do not 
propose to discuss, but merely hint at these various subjects. 
[Cries of " Go on !"] 

THE NEGROES WILL FIGHT. 

There is one question I am frequently asked, and most fre- 
quently by my old Democratic friends: "Gen. Butler, what 
is your experience? Will the negroes fight?" To that I 
answer, I have no personal experience, because I left the De- 
partment of the Gulf before they were fairly brought into 
action. But they did fight under Jackson, at Chalmette. 
More than that. Let Napoleon III. answer, who has hired 
them to do what the veterans of the Crimea cannot do — to 
whip the Mexicans. Let the veterans of Napoleon L, under 
Le Clerc, who were whipped by them out of San Domingo, 
say whether they will fight or not. What has been the de- 
moralizing effect upon them as a race by their contact with 
white men, I know not; but I cannot forget that their fathers 
would not have been slaves, but that they were captives in 
war, in their own country, in hand to hand fights among the 



19 

several chiefs. They would fight at some time; and if you 
want to know any more than that, I can only advise you to 
try them. [Great applause.] 

WE HAVE GREATER CLAIMS ON NEUTRAL NA- 
TIONS BY TREATING THIS AS A REVOLUTION. 

Passing to another logical deduction from the principle that 
we are carrying on war against alien enemies, (for I pray you 
to remember that I am only carrying out the same idea upon 
which the Government acted when it instituted the blockade,) 
I meet the question whether we thereby give foreign nations 
any greater rights than if we considered them as a rebellious 
portion of our country. We have heretofore seemed to con- 
sider, that if we acknowledged that this was a revolution, and 
the rebels were alien enemies in this fight, that therefore we 
should give to foreign nations greater apparent right to inter- 
fere in our affairs than they would have if the insurgents were 
considered and held by us as rebels, only in a rebellious por- 
tion of our country. The first answer to that is this : that, so 
far as the rebels are concerned, they are estopped to deny that 
they are exactly what they claim themselves to be, alien 
enemies; and, so far as foreign nations are concerned, the 
rebels are alien to us, yet they are upon our territory, and 
until we acknowledge them, there is no better settled rule of 
the law of nations than that the recognition of them as an in- 
dependent nation is an act of war. They have no more right 
to recognize them because we say to them, " We will deal with 
you as belligerent alien enemies," than they would have to 
treat with them if we hold them simply as rebels; and no 
country is more sternly and strongly bound by that view than 
is England, because she claimed the recognition by France of 
our independence to be an act of war, and declared war ac- 
cordingly. [Applause.] Therefore, I do not see why we lose 
any rights. We do not admit that this is a rightful rebellion 
— we do not recognize it as such — we do not act toward it ex- 
cept in the best way we can to put it down and to re-revo- 
lutionize the country. What is the duty, then, of neutrals, if 
these are alien enemies ? We thus find them a people with 
whom no neutral nation has any treaty of amity or alliance; 
they are strangers to every neutral nation. For example, let 
us take the English. The English nation have no treaty with 
the rebels — have no relations with the rebels — open relations 
I mean, [laughter,] none that are recognized by the laws of 
nations. They have a treaty of amity, friendship and com- 
merce with us, and now, What is their duty in the contest 



20 

between us and our enemies, to whom they are strangers ? 
They claim it to be neutrality, only such neutrality as they 
should maintain between two friendly nations of whom they 
have had treaties of amity. Let me illustrate : I have two 
friends that have got into a quarrel — into a fight, if you 
please; I am on equally good terms with both, and I do not 
choose to take a part with either. I treat them as belligerents, 
and hold myself neutral. That is the position of a nation 
where two equally friendly nations are fighting. But again, 
I have a friend who is fighting with a stranger with whom I 
have nothing to do, of whom I know nothing that is good, of 
whom I have seen nothing except that he would fight — what 
is my duty, to my friends, in that case ? To stand perfectly 
neutral ? It is not the part of a friend so to do, as between 
men, and it is not the part of a friendly nation, as between 
nations. And yet, from some strange misconception, our 
English friends profess to do no more than to stand perfectly 
neutral, while they have treaties of amity and commerce with 
us, and no treaty which they acknowledge with the South. 
[Applause.] 

THE DUTY OF FOREIGN NATIONS TOWARD THE 
UNITED STATES IN THIS CONTEST. 

And, therefore, I say, there is a much higher duty on the 
part of foreign nations toward us when we are in contest with 
a nation with which they have no treaty of amity than there 
possibly can be toward them. To illustrate how this fact bears 
upon this question: the English say, " Oh ! we are going to 
be neutral; we will not sell you any arms, because, to be neutral 
strictly, we should have to sell the same to the Confederates." 
To that 1 answer : You have treaties of amity and commerce 
with us, by which you agree to trade with us. You have no 
treaty of amity or commerce with them by which you agree to 
trade with them. Why not, then, trade with us ? Why not give 
us that rightful preference, except for reasons of hostility to 
us, that I will state hereafter ? I have been thus particular 
upon this, because in stating my proposition to gentlemen in 
whose judgment I have great confidence, they have said to me, 
" I agree to your theory, Mr. Butler, but I am afraid you will 
involve us with other nations by the view that you take of that 
matter." But I insist, and I can only state the proposition — 
your own minds will carry it out familiarly — for want of time, 
I insist that there is a higher and closer duty to us — treating 
the rebels as a strange nation, not yet admitted into the family 
of nations — that there is a higher duty from our old friend- 



21 

ship, on her part, from our old relations toward Great Britain, 
than there is to this rebellious, pushing, attempting-to-get- 
into-place member of the family of nations. 

HOW THE COUNTRY MAY BE RE-UNITED. 

There is still another logical sequence which, in my judg- 
ment, follows from this view of the case. The great question 
put to me by my friends, and the great question which is now 
agitating this country, is, How are we to get these men back ? 
How are we to get this territory back ? How are we to recon- 
struct this nation ? I think it is much better answered upon 
this hypothesis than any other: There are but two ways in 
which this contest can be ended ; one is, by re-revolutionizing 
a portion of this seceding territory, and have the people ask 
to be admitted into the Union ; another is, to bring it all back, 
so that if they do not come back in the first way, they shall 
come back bound to our triumphal car of victory. [Applause.] 
Now, when any portion of the South becomes loyal to the 
North and to the Union, or, to express it with more care, 
when any portion of the inhabitants of the South wish to be- 
come again a part of the nation, and will throw off the govern- 
ment of Jefferson Davis, erect themselves into a State, and 
come and ask us to take them back with such a State Consti- 
tution as they ought to be admitted under, there is no difficulty 
in its being done. There is no witchery about this. This pre- 
cise thing has been done in the case of Western Virginia. She 
went out — stayed out for a while. By the aid of our armies, 
and by the efforts of her citizens, she re-revolutionized ; threw 
off the government of the rest of the State of Virginia ; threw 
off the Confederate yoke; erected herself into a State, with a 
constitution such as I believe is quite satisfactory to all of us, 
especially the amendment. [Applause.] She has asked to 
come back, and has been received back, and is the first enter- 
ing wedge of that series of States which will come back that 
way. But suppose they will not come back ? We are bound 
to subjugate them. What, then, do they become ? Territories 
of the United States— [great applause] — acquired by force of 
arms — [renewed applause] — precisely as we acquired Cali- 
fornia, precisely as we acquired Nevada, precisely as we ac- 
quired — not exactly, though — as we acquired Texas — [laugh- 
ter]; and then is there any difficulty in treating with these 
men ? Was there any difficulty in dealing with the State of 
California, when our men went there and settled in sufficient 
numbers so as to give that State the benefits of the blessings 
of a republican form of government ? Was there any diffi- 



22 

culty in obtaining her, beyond our transactions with Mexico ? 
None whatever. Will there be any difficulty in taking to our- 
selves the new State of Nevada when she is ready to come and 
ripe to come ? Was there any difficulty in taking into the 
Union any portion of the Louisiana purchase, when we bought 
it first ? Will there be any difficulty, when her people get 
ready to come back to the United States, of our taking her 
back again, more than, perhaps, to carry out the parallel a 
little further, to pay a large sum of money besides, as we did 
in the case of California after we conquered it from Mexico ? 
These States having gone out without cause, without right, 
without grievance, and having formed themselves into new 
States, and taken upon themselves new alliances, I am not for 
having them come back without readmission. I feel, perhaps, 
if the ladies will pardon the illustration, like a husband whose 
wife has run away with another man, and has divorced herself 
from him ; he will not take her to his arms until they have 
come before the priest and been remarried. [Laughter.] I 
have, I say, the same feeling in the case of these people that 
have gone out ; when they repent, and ask to come back, I 
am ready to receive them ; and 1 am not ready until then. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ARMY OF THE 
GULF VINDICATED. 

And now, having gone by far too discursively over many of 
these points which I desired to bring to your attention,- let us 
return to what has been done, in the Department of the Gulf, 
to which you have so flatteringly alluded, and to which I will 
answer. While I am very much gratified at the kind expres- 
sion of your regard, whether that expression is justified can be 
told in a single word. When I left the Department of the 
Gulf, I sat down and deliberately put in the form of an ad- 
dress, to the people of that Department, the exact acts I had 
done while in their Department ; I said to them, " I have done 
these things," I have now waited more than three months, and 
I have yet to hear a denial from that Department that these 
things were done. [Applause.] 

GEN. BUTLER'S ANSWER TO ALL CALUMNIES. 

And to that, sir, I can point alone as a justification of your 
too flattering eulogy, and to that I point forever as my answer 
to every slander and every calumny. The ladies of New Or- 
leans knew whether they were safe ; has any one of them ever 
said she was not ? The men of New Orleans knew whether 
life and property were safe ; has any man ever said they were 



23 

not ? The poor of New Orleans knew whether the money which 
was taken from the rich rebels, was applied to the alleviation 
of their wants ; has any man denied that it was ? To that re- 
cord I point — and it will be the only answer that I shall ever 
make ; and I only do it now because I desire that you shall 
have neither doubt nor feeling upon this subject — it is the only 
answer I can ever make to the thousand calumnies that have 
been poured upon me and mine, and upon the officers who 
worked with me for the good of our country. [Applause.] 

THE PROSPECT OF A SUCCESSFUL TERMINATION 
OF THE WAR. 

I desire now to say a single word upon the question, what 
are the prospects of this war ? My simple opinion would be 
no better than that of another man ; but let me show you the 
reason for the faith that is in me that this war is progressing 
steadily to a successful termination. Compare the state of the 
country on January 1, 1863, with the state of the country on 
January 1, 1862, and tell me whether there has not been pro- 
gress. At that time the Union armies held no considerable 
portion of Missouri, of Kentucky, or of Tennessee ; none of 
Virginia except Fortress Monroe and Arlington Heights ; none 
of North Carolina save Hatteras, and none of South Carolina 
save Port Royal. All the rest was ground of struggle at least, 
and all the rest furnishing supplies to the rebels. Now they 
hold none of Missouri, none of Kentucky, none of Tennessee, 
for any valuable purpose of supplies, because the Western por- 
tion is in our hands, and the Eastern portion has been so run 
over by the contending armies that the supplies are gone. 
They hold no portion of Virginia valuable for supplies, for that 
is eaten out by their armies. We hold one-third of Virginia, 
and half of North Carolina. We hold our own in South Caro- 
lina ; and I hope that, before the 11th of this month, we shall 
hold a little more. [Applause.] We hold two-thirds of Louisi- 
ana, in wealth and population. We hold all Arkansas and 
all Texas, so far as supplies are concerned, so long as Farragut 
is between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. [Applause.] And 
I believe the colored troops held Florida, at the last accounts. 
Now, then, let us see to what the rebellion is reduced. It is 
reduced to the remainder of Virginia, part of North and South 
Carolina, all of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and a small 
portion of Louisiana and Tennessee ; Texas and Arkansas, as 
I said before, being cut off. Why I draw strong hopes from 
this is, that their supplies all come either from Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, Missouri, Arkansas, or Texas, and these are now com- 



24 

pletely beyond their reach. To this fact I look largely for the 
suppression of this rebellion, and the overthrow of this revolu- 
tion. 

OUR RESOURCES COMPARED WITH THOSE OF 
THE REBELS. 

They have got to the end of their conscription ; we have not 
begun ours. They have got to the end of their national credit ; 
we have not put ours in any market in the world. [Applause.] 
And why should any man be desponding ? Why should any man 
say that this great work has gone on too slowly ? Why should 
men feel impatient ? The war of the Revolution was seven 
years. Why should men be so anxious that nations should 
march faster than they are prepared to march — faster than the 
tread of nations has ever been in the providence of God ? Na- 
tions in war have ever moved slowly. We are too impatient — 
we never learn anything, it would seem to me, from reading 
history — I speak of myself as well as you — I have shared in 
that impatience myself. I have shared in your various matters 
of disappointment. 

THE NAVY VINDICATED FOR NOT CATCHING THE 
ALABAMA. 

I was saying but the other day, to a friend of mine, " It 
seems strange to me that our navy cannot catch that steamer 
Alabama ; there must be something wrong in the Navy De- 
partment, I am afraid," and I got quite impatient. I had 
hardly got over the wound inflicted by the capture of the Jacob 
Bell, when came the Grolden Eagle, and the Lady Jane, 
and as one was from Boston, it touched me keenly. [Applause.] 
He replied : " Don't be impatient, remember that Paul Jones, 
with a sailing ship on the coast of England, put the whole 
British navy at defiance for many months, and wandered up 
and down that coast, and worked his will upon it, [applause,] 
and England had no naval power to contend with, and had not 
2,500 miles of sea coast to blockade as we have. I remember 
that in the French war, Lord Cochrane, with one vessel, and 
that was by no means a steamship, held the whole French coast 
in terror against the French navy. And so it has been done 
by other nations. Let us have a little patience, and possess 
our souls with a little patriotism, and less politics, and we shall 
have no difficulty. [Applause, and "Good."" 



25 

THE OUTRAGES OF ENGLAND TOWARDS THE 
UNITED STATES. 

But there is one circumstance of this war, I am bound 
to say in all frankness to you, that I do not like the appear- 
ance of, and that is, because we cannot exactly reach it. I re- 
fer to the war made upon our commerce, which is not the fault 
of the navy, nor of any department of the Government, but is 
the fault of our allies. [Applause.] Pardon me a moment, 
for I am speaking now in the commercial city of New York, 
where I think it is of interest to you, and of a matter to which 
I have given some reflection — pardon me a moment, while we 
examine and see what England has done. She agreed to be neu- 
tral — I have tried to demonstrate to you that she ought to have 
been a little more than neutral — but has she been even that ? 
["No, no, no."" Let us see the evidences of that "no." In 
the first place, there has been nothing of the Union cause that 
her orators and her statesmen have not maligned — there has 
been nothing of sympathy or encouragement which she has not 
afforded our enemies — there has been nothing which she could 
do under the cover of neutrality which she has not done to aid 
them. ["That is true."" Nassau has been a naval arsenal 
for pirate rebel boats to refit in. Kingston has been their coal 
depot, and Barbadoes has been the dancing-hall to fete pirate 
chieftains in. [Applause.] 

THE SYMPATHY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
WITH THE ENGLISH PEOPLE— THE HABITS 
OF HER ARISTOCRACY. 

What cause, my friends — what cause, my countrymen, has 
England so to deal with us ? What is the reason she does so 
deal with us ? Is it because we have never shown sympathy 
toward her or love to her people ? And mark me here, that I 
make a distinction between the English people as a mass and 
the English Government. [Applause.] I think the heart of 
her people beats responsive to ours — [Applause] — but I know 
her Government and aristocracy hate us with a hate which 
passeth all understanding. [Applause.] I say, let us see if 
we have given any cause for this. I know, I think, what the 
cause is ; but let us see what we have done. 

OUR CHARITIES TO THE STARVING POOR OF 
ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 

You remember that when the famine overtook the Irish in 
1847, the Macedonian frigate carried out the bread from this 



26 

country to feed the poor that England was starving. [Applause.] 
When afterward the heir to her throne arrived here, aye, in 
this very house, our people assembled to do him welcome in 
such numbers that the very floor would not uphold them, 
[laughter], and to testify our appreciation of the high qualities 
of his mother and sovereign, and our love of the English peo- 
ple — we gave him such a reception as Northern gentlemen give 
to their friends ; and his present admirers at Richmond gave 
him such a reception as Southern gentlemen give to their 
friends. [Laughter and applause.] What further has been 
done by us ? No, I have no right to claim any portion of it. 
What has been done by the merchants of New York ? The 
G-eorge Griswold goes out to feed the starving poor of Lanca- 
shire, to which yourselves all contributed, and it was only God's 
blessing on that charity that prevented that vessel being over- 
hauled and burned by the pirate Alabama, fitted out from an 
English port. [Applause.] 

THE ENGLISH REBEL PIRATE FLEET. 

And to-day, at Birkenhead, the Sumter is being fitted out — 
at Barbadoes the captain of the Florida is being feted — and 
somewhere the "290," the cabalistic number of the British 
merchants who contributed to her construction, is preying upon 
our commerce, while we hear that at Glasgow a steamer is being 
built for the Emperor of China — [laughter] — and at Liverpool 
another is about to be launched for the Emperor, of China. 
Pardon me, I don't believe the Emperor of China will buy 
many ships of Great Britain, until they bring back the silk 
gowns they stole out of his palace at Pekin. [Laughter and 
great applause.] And even now, I say that our commerce is 
being preyed upon, by ships in the hands of the rebels, built 
by English builders. [Cries of " That's so."] Aud I ask the 
merchants of the city of New York whether it has not already 
reached the point where our commerce, to be safe, has to be 
carried in British bottoms. [Great applause.] 

ENGLISH TREACHERY AND DUPLICITY. 

Now, I learn from the late correspondence of Earl Russell, 
with the rebel commissioner Mason, that the British have put 
two articles of the treaty of Paris in compact with the rebels — 
first, that enemies' goods shall be covered by neutral flags, and 
there shall be free trade at the ports, and open trade with neu- 
trals. Why didn't Great Britain put the other part of the 
treaty in compact ; namely, that there should be no more priva- 
teering ! if she was honest and earnest, and did not mean our 



27 

commerce should be crippled by rebel piracy ? Again, when 
we took from her deck our two senators and rebel embassadors, 
Slidell and Mason, and took them, in my judgment, according 
to the laws of nations, what did she do but threaten us with 
war ? I agree that it was wisely done, perhaps, not to provoke 
war at that time — we were not quite in a condition for it — but 
I thank God, and that always, that we are fast getting in a 
condition to remember that threat always and every day ! 
[Tremendous applause, and waving of handkerchiefs, and cries 
of " Good !"] Why is it all this has been done ? (Because 

WE ALONE CAN BE THE COMMERCIAL RIVALS OF GREAT BRI- 
TAIN ! and because the South has no commercial marine. 

OUR COMMERCE TO BE RUINED. 

There has been, in my judgment, a deliberate attempt on the 
part of Great Britain, under the plea of neutrality, to allow 
our commerce to be ruined, for her own benefit, if human ac- 
tions indicate human thoughts. [Cries of "That is so."] It 
is idle to tell me Great Britain does not know these vessels 
are fitted out in her ports. It is idle and insulting to tell me 
that she put the Alabama under $20,000 bonds, not to go into 
the service of the Confederate States. The Jacob Bell alone 
would pay the amount of the bond over and over again. 

WE PRESERVED OUR NEUTRALITY IN THE WAR 
WITH RUSSIA. 

We did not so deal with her when she was at war with 
Russia. On the suggestion of the British Minister, our Govern- 
ment stopped, with the rapidity of lightning, the sailing of a 
steamer supposed to be for Russia, until the minister himself 
was convinced of her good faith, and willing to let her go. We 
must take some means to put a stop to these piracies, and to 
the fitting out of pirate vessels in English ports. They are 
always telling us about the inefficiency of a republican govern- 
ment, but as they are acting now, we could stop two pirates to 
her one. [Applause.] We must, in some way, put a stop to 
the construction and fitting out of these pirate vessels in Eng- 
lish ports to prey upon our commerce, or else consent to keep 
our ships idle at home. We must stop them — we must act 
upon the people of England, if we cannot secure a stoppage in 
any other way. [Applause.] 

THE IMMENSE LOSS TO OUR COMMERCE. 

I have seen it stated that the loss to our commerce already 
amounts to $9,000,000 — enough to have paid the expense of 



28 

keeping a large number of vessels at home, and out of the way 
of these cruisers. 

OUR REMEDY. 

What shall we do in the matter ? Why, when our Govern- 
ment takes a step toward putting a stop to it, (and I believe it 
is taking that step now, but it is not in my province to speak 
of it,) we must aid it in so doing. [Great applause.] We 
the people are the Government in this matter; and when our 
Government gets ready to take a step, we must get ready to 
sustain it. [Applause.] 

FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF ENGLAND. 

England told us what to do when we took Mason and Slidell, 
and she thought there was a likelihood to be a war. She 
stopped exportation of those articles which she thought we 
wanted, and which she had allowed to be exported before. Let 
us do the same thing. [Applause.] 

PROCLAIM NON-INTERCOURSE— STOP SUPPLIES 
OF FOOD. 

Let us proclaim non-intercourse, so that no ounce of food 
shall ever by any accident get into an Englishman's mouth, 
until these piracies cease. [Laughter and applause.] 

[A voice : " Say that again !"] 

Gen. Butler : I never say anything, my friends, that I am 
afraid to say again. [Applause.] I repeat — let us proclaim 
non-intercourse, so that no ounce of American food shall by 
any accident get into an Englishman's mouth, until these pira- 
cies are stopped. [Applause.] That we have a right to do ; 
and when we ever do do it, my word for it, the English Govern- 
ment will find out where these vessels are going to, and they 
will write to the Emperor of China upon the subject. [Ap- 
plause.] But I hear some objector say, " If you proclaim non- 
intercourse, England may go to war." Now, I am not to be 
frightened twice running. [Laughter.] I got frightened a 
little better than a year ago, but I have gotten over it. [Great 
laughter.] Further, this is a necessity ; for we must keep 
our ships at home in some form to save them from these pira- 
cies, when a dozen of these privateers get loose upon the seas. 
It will become a war measure which any nation, under any law, 
under any construction, would warrant our right to enforce. 



, 29 

ALL OTHER NATIONS BUT ENGLAND BEHAVING 

WELL. 

And this course should be adopted toward the English 
nation alone, for I have never heard of any blockade runners 
under the French flag, nor under the Russian flag, nor under 
the Austrian flag — nor under the Greek flag. No ! not even 
the Turks will do it. [Applause.] Therefore, I have ventured 
to suggest the adoption of this course, for your consideration 
as a possible, aye, not only possible, but, unless this state of 
things has a remedy, a probable event : for we must see to it 
that we protect ourselves and take a manly place among the 
nations of the earth. [Applause.] But I hear some friend of 
mine say, " I am afraid your scheme would bring down our 
provisions ; and if we do not export them to England we shall 
find our western markets still more depressed." Allow me, 
with great deference to your judgment, gentlemen, to suggest 
a remedy for that at the same time. 

EXPORTATION OF GOLD PROHIBITED. THE WEST 
TO REAP THE ADVANTAGE. 

I would suggest that the exportation of gold be prohibited, 
and then there would be nothing to forward to meet the bills 
of exchange and pay for the goods we have bought, except 
our provisions. And, taking a hint from one of your best and 
most successful merchants, we could pay for our silks and 
satins in butter, and lard, and corn, and beef ; and pork, and 
bring up the prices in the West, so that they could afford to 
pay the increased tariff in bringing them forward, now rendered 
necessary, I suppose, upon your railroads. [Applause.] And 
if our fair sisters and daughters will dress in silks, and satins, 
and laces, they will not feel any more troubled that a portion 
of the price goes to the Western farmer to enhance his gains, 
instead of going into the coffers of a Jew banker in Wall 
Street. [Applause.] 

OUR LEADING POLITICIANS TAMPERING WITH 
ENGLAND FOR A DISRUPTION OF THE UNION. 

You will observe, my friends, that in the list of grievances 
with which I charge England, 1 have not charged her with 
tampering with our leading politicians. [Laughter.] So far 
as any evidence I have, 1 don't know that she is guilty, but 
what shall we say of our leading politicians that have tampered 
with her ? [Laughter.] I have read of it, in the letters of 



30 

Lord Lyons, with much surprise — with more surprise than has 
been excited in me by any other fact of this war. I had, 
somehow, got an inkling of the various things that came up in 
previous instances, so I was not very much surprised at them ; 
but when I read a statement, deliberately put forward, that 
here, in New York — leading politicians had consulted with the 
British minister as to how these United States could be sepa- 
rated and broken up, every drop of blood in my veins boiled, 
and I would have liked to have met that leading politician. 
[Tremendous applause.] I do not know that Lord Lyons is to 
blame. I suppose, sir, if a man comes to one of your clerks 
and offers to go into partnership with him to rob your neigh- 
bor's bank, and he reports him to you, you do not blame the 
clerk ; but what do you do with the man who makes the offer ? 
[Laughter.] 

[A voice : " Hang him !"] 

HOW WASHINGTON MET SUCH TRAITORS. 

I think we had better take a lesson from the action of 
Washington's administration — when the French minister, M. 
Genet, undertook even to address the people of the United 
States by letter, complaint was made to his government, and 
he was recalled, and a law was passed preventing, for all future 
time, any interference by foreign diplomatists with the people 
of the United States. 

THE PROPOSITION OF THE DEMOCRATIC POLITI- 
CIANS, THAT THE BRITISH SHOULD AID IN 
THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR GOVERNMENT. 

I want to be understood. I have no evidence of any inter- 
ference on the part of Lord Lyons, but he says in his letter to 
Earl Russell that, both before and after a certain event, lead- 
ing politicians came to him and desired that he would do what 
— (I am giving the substance and not words) — desired that he 
would request his Government not to interfere between the 
North and the South. Why not ? Because it would aid the 
country not to interfere? No! Because, if England did in- 
terfere, the country would spurn the interference, and be 
stronger than ever to crush the rebellion. Mark again the in- 
sidious way in which the point was put. They knew how we 
felt because of the action of England — they knew that the 
heart of this people beat true to the Constitution, and that it 
could not brook any interference on the part of England. 
What, then, did these politicians do ? They asked the British 
Minister to use the influence of British diplomacy to induce 



31 

other nations to interfere, but to take care that Great 
Britain should keep out of sight, lest we should see the 
cat under the meal. [Laughter.] This is precisely the pro- 
position that they made. You observe, that in speaking of 
these men, I have, up to this moment, used the word politi- 
cians : What kind of politicians ? [A voice : " Copperheads." 
Hisses and groans.] They cannot be Democratic politicians. 
[" Of course they cannot." Lord Lyons calls them con- 
servative politicians. How I should like to hear Andrew 
Jackson say a few words upon such politicians who call them- 
selves Democrats !" [" He would hang them."] No, I don't 
think he would have an opportunity to do so ; he never would 
be able to catch them. [Laughter.] I have felt it my duty 
here in the city of New York, because of the interest I have 
in public affairs, to call attention to this most extraordinary 
fact — that there are men in the community so lost to patriot- 
ism, so bound up in the traditions of party, so selfish, as to be 
willing to tamper with Great Britain in order to bring about 
the separation of this country. It is the most alarming fact 
that I have yet seen. I had rather see a hundred thousand 
men set in the field on the rebel side — aye, I had rather see 
Great Britain armed against us openly, as she is covertly — 
than to be forced to believe that there are amongst us such 
men as these, lineal descendants of Judas Iscariot, inter- 
married with the race of Benedict Arnold. ["Wood," 
"Brooks."] 

BECAUSE OF- THE TREACHERY OF POLITICIANS, 
THE PEOPLE MUST STAND BY THE GOVERNMENT. 

It has shown me a great danger with which we are threat- 
ened, and I call upon all true men to sustain the Government 
to be loyal to the Government. [Loud cheers.] As you, sir, 
were pleased to say, the present Government was not the Gov- 
ernment of my choice — I did not vote for it, or for any part of 
it ; but it is the Government of my country, it is the only 
organ by which I can exert the force of the country to protect 
its integrity ; and as long as I believe that Government to be 
honestly administered, I will throw a mantle over any mistakes 
that I may think it has made, and support it heartily, with 
hand and purse, so help me God ! [Prolonged cheering.] 

WHAT IS LOYALTY TO THE GOVERNMENT. 

I have no loyalty to any man or men ; my loyalty is to the 
Government ; and it makes no difference to me who the people 



32 

have chosen to administer the Government, so long as the choice 
has been constitutionally made, and the persons so chosen hold 
their places and powers. I am a traitor and a false man if I 
falter in mj support. [Applause.] This is what I understand 
to be loyalty to a Government ; and I was sorry to learn, as I 
did the other day, that there was a man in New York who pro- 
fessed not to know the meaning of the word loyalty. [Hisses, 
groans, and cries of "Wood." I desire to say here that it is 
the duty of every man to be loyal to the Government, to sus- 
tain it, to pardon its errors, and help it to rectify them, and 
to do all he can to aid it in carrying the country on in the 
course of glory and grandeur in which it was started by our 
fathers. 

NO FRIEND OF THE COUNTRY CAN OPPOSE IT 
IN TIME OF WAR. 

And let me say to you, my friends — to you, young men, that 
no man who opposed his country in time of war ever pros- 
pered. ["That's so."] The Tory of the Revolution, the Hart- 
ford Conventionist of 1812, the immortal seven who voted 
against the supplies for the Mexican War — all history is against 
these men. Let no politician of our day put himself in the way 
of the march of this country to glory and greatness, for who- 
ever does so will surely be crushed. The course of our nation 
is onward, and let him who opposes it beware. 

" The mower mowe on — though the adder may writhe, 
Or the copperhead coil round the blade of his scythe."- 

[Loud applause.] It only remains, sir, for me to repeat the 
expression of my gratitude to you and the citizens of New York 
here assembled, for the kindness with which you and they have 
received me and listened to me, for which, please, again accept 
my thanks. [Prolonged cheering.] 



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